B.L. is 25 years old, and has lived a life characterized by very high anxiety, frequent meltdowns—often with aggression, and highly oppositional behavior. He has been irritable, impatient and demanding, refusing to comply with rules and insubordinate of authority. He has always been very egocentric and seemed incapable of considering the needs of others. He…

I am happy to share our experience with the ketamine Therapy, and I hope it will be helpful to those of you considering it for your child.

When my daughter Suzie (now 9) was in preschool she had oral surgery and, after much discussion with Dr. Papolos and an anesthesiologist, the oral surgeon decided to use ketamine to sedate Suzie. Two previous sedations for ear tube surgeries and one tooth extraction had shown us that Suzie experiences paradoxical reactions to many of these meds, often derailing her mental stability, taking months to get back on track.

Well, God Bless this oral surgeon — and Dr. Papolos for deciding to try the ketamine! Not only did it work effectively for the surgery and NOT derail her stability — it actually gave us back our daughter for a few days! It was an accidental discovery. Suzie woke up from that surgery and it was as if someone had taken away her bipolar disorder. No separation anxiety, no sensory issues, increased clarity of thought and speech, affectionate, and more mature than we had ever seen. It was truly amazing. Unfortunately, it wore off after a day or too, but we made note of it for any future oral surgery, etc.

A few years later Suzie went for a sedated MRI. With a great deal of coaxing, the anesthesiologist agreed to use ketamine to sedate her. He was convinced that she might hallucinate, and experience other negative psychiatric side effects. But, once again, Suzie woke up seemingly bipolar-free — with clarity of speech and thought, affectionate, and calm-bodied.

When Johnny was born the nurses in the hospital appropriately nicknamed him “The Screamer”. Johnny continued to scream all day and night until the end of his second year; when he finally slept six hours without a tantrum or a night terror for the first time. Johnny would fight to get dressed, fight to stay dressed, fight to be held and fight to be left alone. We would spend hours trying to console him and took daily car rides in hope of a small nap to offer us all a moment’s relief. Naptime was when he practiced rocking his crib clear across his room, in a fit of rage. He was afraid to be alone even in the daylight and terrified of the night. It was impossible to leave him with a babysitter and almost impossible for his parents to maintain composure alone with him. As time progressed, his newer nickname became “Johnny Rotten”; it was our sleep-deprived way of using humor to maintain our sanity. That same year we found ourselves at Yale begging for help from the most sought after physicians. How could a child this young be so difficult, act so threatened? As the night terrors continued so did the violent episodes. His tantrums lasted for hours and were accompanied with biting, scratching and throwing of objects. He would attack his family members regularly and fight to be restrained.

The primary purpose of a consultation is a comprehensive assessment of the past and current course of illness and detailed history of treatments that would enable the development of a more effective treatment plan.